discussion Sanders & progressives call on Biden to issue EO giving rail workers 7 sick days

December 10, 2022

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This morning, Sen. Bernie Sanders, along with 71 other senators and representatives, sent a letter to President Biden requesting that he require the rail companies to provide seven days of paid sick leave to their employees as a condition of their continuing to receive federal contracts.

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As former New York Times labor reporter Steven Greenhouse first noted in an article for the Century Foundation, which the Prospect amplified, President Obama issued an executive order on Labor Day 2015 that required federal contractors to provide their employees with seven paid sick days per year. All the rail companies have been federal contractors going back to the 19th century, moving freight and supplies on behalf of multiple federal agencies. Rail companies stated in court last year that they were federal contractors, in a case about the president’s vaccine mandate.

But Obama’s order was limited to workers whose wages are governed under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Service Contract Act, or the Davis-Bacon Act. Rail workers fall under a different law, the Railway Labor Act. So they didn’t qualify for the order’s mandate for sick days. As The Lever reported, the rail industry specifically lobbied against being included in the order in 2016, when the Department of Labor was turning it into a rule.

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But Sanders and his colleagues are among the first elected officials to explicitly say that Biden should bestow sick days on rail workers by executive order. The Boston Globe editorial board and incoming progressive member of Congress Summer Lee have suggested the executive order tactic. Bowman urged the use of executive authority last Friday.

December 10, 2022

2 hours ago, Communion said:

As The Lever reported, the rail industry specifically lobbied against being included in the order in 2016, when the Department of Labor was turning it into a rule.

Imagine being so bad at running a business that makes BILLIONS... and you lobby to prevent your own employees from being able to take sick days. Disgusting :rip: